An Interview
by Hikaru-Ohayashi
Summary: Killua narrates how his childhood was like until he met Gon in the first hunter Exam.


Disclaimer: I don't own HxH nor its characters

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was raining hard that night. The wind was blowing hard, yet still there were lots of people outside the buildings bustling about ---in a hurry to get to their destination and get to shade. The city was still a light show, bright yet blurred by the pouring rain. Underneath her umbrella a young girl sighed. Her short layered black hair following the direction of the raging wind. She looked up at the young teen next to her. _Killua---his name. He was a Zaoldyeck, he said._ His soulful sapphire blue eyes met her dark brown ones. He frowned.

"Perhaps we should get in there." He suggested as he pointed to a Japanese restaurant. She nodded and they walked toward shade. Killua pulled his phone from his pocket and started texting someone right after they got seated. The girl rummaged through her bag. Killua waited patiently. She pulled out a recorder, a pen and a notebook and set it on the table while Killua signalled for the waitress to come and take their order.

"What will your order be, sir?" the waitress asked Killua.

"One sashimi special, wagyu steak—medium, and iced tea." He replied. The waitress turned to the girl.

"Ah, California temaki, shake sashimi, and unagidon please."

"Your drink, Miss?"

"Just water." she smiled as the waitress left to get their orders.

The girl then glanced at Killua and looked away again. She didn't know how to start. How was she going to ask this boy about his life? Moreover, who was she that he would actually impart such information with her?

"I didn't get your name" Killua said to sort of break the ice.

"Ah, uhm…it doesn't really matter."

Killua let the subject go and tried to find a new one.

"So, what do you want from me?" _BAM!_ Straight to the point, she thought. She took a deep breath as she struggled to get the words off her lips. She mustered up the courage to speak.

"Ano…I was wondering if you'd tell me what your life's like—being the heir to the Zaoldyecks and all."

"I'm no longer an assassin" He replied

"ah…uhm…"

"But I'll tell you what it's like before I had quit."

"Doumo arigatou gozaimasu!"

"Where would you like me to start?"

"Ah…uh…wherever you think is appropriate."

They were interrupted by the waitress who had come back with the drinks they ordered. They both nodded their thanks and sipped the cool drink. Killua closed his eyes for a while to think as he drank from the glass. He put it back down on the table, opened his eyes and started.

"My family was famous or rather, I should say, infamous for being assassins…the best ones in the business—if you'd like to call it such. It was something my parents, no, everyone in my family held with pride. And as such, all of us siblings were trained to be murderers. I was the one who showed much promise and so they made me their heir.

Ever since I can remember, my brother, Illumi, trained me in the arts of assassination and combat. Milluki, my other older brother, electrocuted me so that I would never give in to torture. I cannot describe how painful that experience is. I can only show you how it's affected me" Killua stopped and used his nen to demonstrate his point and created an electric current, the volts jumping from his fingers. His companion only stared wide eyed, unable to hide the shock. "While Milluki did that. My mother would feed me all types of poisons. Little doses at first but soon gave me lethal doses. Of course, I got sick a lot. That's inevitable but soon they got what they were after. I was immune to poison.

By around four years old, I was ready for my first job or at least they thought I did. I thought I did as well. I had never killed anyone before that event. The experience crushed my soul. I was tasked to assassinate a high ranking official in some country—I can't remember the name. Like I said, it was the first time for me. I did what I was supposed to. I got past the guards easily and stabbed the guy right through the heart. I thought it was easy. I was done, but as I looked at the place, covered in blood I shivered. The room suddenly felt bigger than it was and it seemed like the blood was everywhere. The dark red liquid was inching closer and closer to the soles of the shoes I wore. I stepped back and looked somewhere else…the corpse. The corpse was staring at _**me.**_ Everything suddenly felt cold. I was actually afraid …

Illumi went to get me after that. We went home. I acted as if nothing bothered me. But that night, I kept having nightmares. Every night, I had nightmares. But time passed and I had gotten used to killing. I could more easily slit a guy's throat than a rabbit's… Now that I think about it, the more I'm convinced that I used to be a monster…"

Killua stopped since the waitress was serving their meal. He continued in between munches once she had left.

"Some time passed and my dad sent me to the celestial tower to improve my fighting skills a bit more. I was told not to go home until I reached the 200th floor. The higher you went up the harder to defeat your opponents got. I won all my fights from the first 100 floors. I was quite confident. And as such, on the next match, I lost. Again, I did not expect it. At first glance the guy was weak. He was no match to me. I thought. There was a strange aura about him. It was a kind of creepy feeling… A cold feeling…Only after 7 years did I know what he used against me. It was a power only hunters were authorized to have. The guy was a nen user. I got beat up pretty badly. And more importantly, my pride was hurt. It was then I learned that I shouldn't underestimate an opponent. Of course, my family had been telling me that but experience was the better teacher. It was also then that I swore I'd fight him again, and that this time, he'll be the one to regret.

It took me about a year to finally get another match with that guy. It was on the 199th floor. I took it as part of the goal. Defeat him and I go home. When I turned up as his opponent again, he taunted me. That infuriated me. I wasn't just going to defeat him. I was going to make him suffer. I hated being looked down upon. I used the fact that he knew I was weaker—in a sense. This time, he was the one to underestimate me, and he paid dearly for it. I killed him, but I had tortured him before that. I let him feel what it was like to be faced with death. I made him regret that he looked down upon me."

Killua paused once again. His companion had seemed to get a bit frightened. But soon she motioned for him to continue.

"After that, I went back home and my life seemed to go by in a blur of events. My training continued, so did the assassination jobs. I've seen more blood spilled than any kid my age would have seen in their life time. I've seen comrades sell out comrades in order that their life is spared. I've seen all types of betrayal and dishonesty our clients do to each other. And by then, I thought people only care for their own survival. It's the way I was raised to think as well. And it just as much proved true.

Yet, there was this one other job assigned to me. It was the first time I heard the word, 'friend'. We needed to get some information the guy about his comrade. I had to torture him to death and yet I got nothing. The only words I got out of him were 'I'll never sell out my friend'. Since then, I wondered 'What is a friend? Why would someone give up his life for a _friend_?' Hell my curiosity got to me and I tried making a friend. She wouldn't let me though. She said that she was only a servant. Kanaria—that was her name.

I started thinking if there was more to life. I was tired of killing. And there were questions pouring into my head. I was sure that my family would give me no answers to them so I ran away from home. I entered the hunter exam for 'entertainment'. But I also wanted to clear my head. I kept thinking that that guy I mentioned was foolish to sacrifice his life for another. But I also kept thinking 'What drove him to ignore his instinct for survival?' As I went to the testing site I saw people sabotaging each other's hopes to become a hunter in order to have fewer competitors and people who give up to save their life. It strengthened the ideas that have always been taught to me.

Who would've thought that participating in that test would change the course of my life and change the way I looked at the world? At the first test of the hunter exam, I met a boy around my age. He started talking to me like I wasn't a complete stranger and he trusted anyone in the test. I ran along with him and his companions and he asked me 'What's your name?' and when I just stared at him he said 'Ah no, you don't have to tell me. I'm Gon.'"

She noticed Killua smile at the very mention of this "Gon" –no maybe of the very thought of Gon, even. Killua continued.

"There was a point in that test that one of the guys we were running with, Leorio, was too exhausted to run. Gon turned around to try to help him. I wondered why he'd do that so I asked him. The answer came to me as a shock. 'He's my friend. I can't just leave him.' Again, I heard that word. What was so special about a friend that you'd even risk failing the exam? Another guy, a chubby ugly one came to offer some help and took Leorio back to rest. But then when they were out of sight, Gon turned to me and said 'Kurapika 'n I am going to follow them. We'll just catch up with you. And when we meet again, would you tell me your name? It's gonna be kinda hard calling you not, knowing your name.' he smiled and ran off with the blonde guy, Kurapika, leaving me stumped. Gon interested me so I made up my mind to follow him."

Killua averted his gaze to the window and smiled. "And now I still am following him. He changed my life and let me know what I had been missing… A life with friends, with people you can trust."

His companion smiled back. But realizing Killua, was still looking out the window she turned to see what he was looking at. The rain had stopped and there was I clear moonlit night sky. Across the street, there was a teenage boy looking around his age waving at Killua. He waved back. Killua turned, asked for the bill ,and paid in full. She was about to protest and pay her half when

"It's my thanks for listening to me." He smiled. He was about to go for the door but he paused and turned back. "I didn't get your name. When we meet again, promise to tell me 'cause it's gonna be kinda hard calling you, not knowing your name." and he turned around again and ran to the boy giving the boy a playful punch when he got there. Killua didn't tell her directly that he kept his promise to Gon but seeing that kid he so cheerily went to made her understand the rest of the untold story. The girl smiled and packed her things. And they went their separate ways. But it was for sure that they'd meet again someday. And on that day, she would keep that promise. She went back to the hotel she was staying at, happy she made a friend—that he considered her a friend.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

END :D

Hope you like. If there are some mixed up ideas, I'm sorry I'll edit them later!


End file.
